I love watching basketball, but I have a terrible shot. If great basketball players can cook – slang for “score however and whenever they want” – I can’t even find the button to turn the oven on.

So when Erik Anderson, CEO of sports tech startup SIQ, claimed he could help improve my shot, I was intrigued. SIQ makes smart basketballs that calculate personalized shooting data. That data, Anderson says, can help anyone be a better shooter.

The Finland, Minnesota-based company, which has been around for about two years, announced in May it had raised $3 million from KB Partners and Tera Ventures. SIQ’s smart basketball is the first to ever be approved by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). SIQ is also the official basketball provider to Overtime Elite, a recently-launched professional basketball league that prepares top talent for the NBA.

“Our mission is to bring advanced basketball analytics to every player without additional hardware or cameras,” said Anderson. “Just like people use Peloton, Apple Watches, or Whoop – basketball players use SIQ.”

Here's how it works: The ball, which has a sensor at the top, uses machine learning to track shooting. Whenever a player takes a shot, the ball detects and categorizes it, generating 192 data points per shot. You can follow all this data over time on an app, telling you what's working and where you might need to improve.

My skepticism was far less scientific. Dribbling? Bouncing? Throwing? I don't own a single "smart" product that could take that kind of jostling. Smart balls – basketballs and otherwise – have been around for longer than you might think, but getting them right has been tricky. I wanted to see it for myself.

'Getting better every day'

That's how I ended up in a Miami rec center on a sweltering August day, hanging around an SIQ photoshoot. So, I sat on gym bleachers, surrounded by the most gifted teenage athletes I'd ever met. Jai Smith, Bryson Warren, Amen Thompson, and Ausar Thompson are all Overtime Elite stars – all likely or already NBA-bound – and SIQ's newest ambassadors.